The green jersey which had proved so elusive now finally belongs to Mark Cavendish.

The 26-year-old, from the Isle of Man, won on the Champs-Elysees for a third successive year, taking his tally of Tour de France stage wins to an incredible 20 in four years.

It was the HTC-Highroad sprinter’s fifth win of the 2011 race and, if his success continues, it is just a matter of time before he overhauls the great Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 Tour stage wins.

British Eurosport commentator Sean Kelly, four times a winner of the Tour’s points classification, said: “It’s incredible in such a short number of starts in the Tour de France to have 20 stage wins. It’s a huge record he has chalked up already.

“Going forward he should be able to match Merckx’s record.

“He has time on his side, he’s still young and if he’s in a team doing what HTC have done this year, there’s no reason he can’t win three or four stages every year.”

Cavendish won four stages in 2008 before ducking out early to prepare for the Beijing Olympics, six in 2009 and five in 2010.

Despite completing the Tour in the last two years, he missed out on the maillot vert by 10 points to Thor Hushovd in 2009 and 11 points to Alessandro Petacchi a year later.

This year, Cavendish’s nearest challenger was the Spaniard Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), who consistently performed across the three weeks but finished the Tour without a stage win.